If you were a young lady in 1957 England you would expect her choice of interesting young gentlemen to be driving old Austin Sevens or Bullnose Morris cars rather than a new Austin A 35 or Hillman Minx but Sylvia was attracted to a different class of boyfriend – one who drove a 1929 Bentley 4½-Litre Tourer with “4 seater sports coachwork” as ordered by Bentley when the car was delivered new to Vanden Plas as a bare chassis at GBP 1035.
Sylvia learned drive in this car in 1957 and in October of that year was married to the owner at Alveston Manor in picturesque Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. Every year the adventurous young couple would tour Europe in their trusty Bentley. With a GB sticker on the rear wing, luggage strapped to the spare wheel on the back, they would drive to Lydd Airport in Kent and load the car onto a Bristol freighter operated by Silver City Airways.
Once in Calais, they would head south …. “always camping and roughing it next to the car”. Sylvia always kept the car looking spick and span and it’s testament to how well she and her husband looked after the Bentley so subsequent owners could also maintain the habit and present it in the fabulous original condition we see it today.
Robert Glover invited Sylvia down to his showroom at Bicester Heritage to re-acquaint her with the old Bentley and the sprightly 83 year old grinned from ear to ear as she was taken for a high speed run around their test track where she was reminded of the superb performance and, in her words, “wonderful exhaust note”. She returned home with her head full of happy memories of proper motoring and I hope whoever is the next owner of this car will be as lucky as the girl who was wooed in a W.O.
(Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy Robert Glover and Simon Clay photos)